es._ ii. 2.)]

[Footnote 2: John i. 10, vii. 7, xiv. 17, 22, 27, xv. 18, and
following; xvi. 8, 20, 33, xvii. 9, 14, 16, 25. This meaning of the
word "world" is especially applied in the writings of Paul and John.]

The advent of this reign of goodness will be a great and sudden
revolution. The world will seem to be turned upside down; the actual
state being bad, in order to represent the future, it suffices to
conceive nearly the reverse of that which exists. The first shall be
last.[1] A new order shall govern humanity. Now the good and the bad
are mixed, like the tares and the good grain in a field. The master
lets them grow together; but the hour of violent separation will
arrive.[2] The kingdom of God will be as the casting of a great net,
which gathers both good and bad fish; the good are preserved, and the
rest are thrown away.[3] The germ of this great revolution will not be
recognizable in its beginning. It will be like a grain of
mustard-seed, which is the smallest of seeds, but which, thrown into
the earth, becomes a tree under the foliage of which the birds
repose;[4] or it will be like the leaven which, deposited in the meal,
makes the whole to ferment.[5] A series of parables, often obscure,
was designed to express the suddenness of this event, its apparent
injustice, and its inevitable and final character.[6]

[Footnote 1: Matt. xix. 30, xx. 16; Mark x. 31; Luke xiii. 30.]

[Footnote 2: Matt. xiii. 24, and following.]

[Footnote 3: Matt. xiii. 47, and following.]

[Footnote 4: Matt. xiii. 31, and following; Mark iv. 31, and
following; Luke xiii. 19, and following.]

[Footnote 5: Matt. xiii. 33; Luke xiii. 21.]

[Footnote 6: Matt. xiii. entirely; xviii. 23, and following; xx. 1,
and following; Luke xiii. 18, and following.]

Who was to establish this kingdom of God? Let us remember that the
first thought of Jesus, a thought so deeply rooted in him that it had
probably no beginning, and formed part of his very being, was that he
was the Son of God, the friend of his Father, the doer of his will.
The answer of Jesus to such a question could not therefore be
doubtful. The persuasion that he was to establish the kingdom of God
took absolute possession of his mind. He regarded himself as the
universal reformer. The heavens, the earth, the whole of nature,
madness, disease, and death, were but his instruments. In his paroxysm
of heroic will, he believed himself all powerful. If the earth would
not sub